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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Hockey Quilts

Please let me preface this post by saying that I am well aware that these pictures are awful! I had about 2.5 minutes to get the pictures taken before we had to run out the door and it just didn't go well. I'm tempted to not mention them at all but I found so little information when I googled "jersey quilt" that I had already promised myself I'd post about these when I finished them. Believe me when I say they look good (really).

front of quilt 1

back of quilt 1

front of quilt 2

back of quilt 2

The quilts are made from hockey jerseys. There are two quilts, one for each son, and they were commissioned by a friend of mine. She's been collecting the jerseys since her boys were little, they are now both adults and these were given as Christmas presents.

I have to admit that when I started these I was worried. I've never sewn with a fabric like this before and I had no idea what I was in for. I've worked with knits and cottons, but never this smooth slippery mesh stuff.

I interfaced all the squares after cutting them (most are 16" by 16") with fusible interfacing and used heat-and-bond to attach a piece of the solid blue fabric to the backs of squares that were a really loose mesh fabric (like the green #55 squares in quilt 2). After doing that I had no problem at all working with or sewing the fabrics.

I didn't want to mess with the squares of fabric too much for fear of altering the look of the logos when I was doing the quilting so I used an inexpensive blanket in each quilt instead of batting (don't shun me ... the shirts were already not 100% cotton). That allowed me to do much less quilting if I chose to. After stitching in the ditch along the sashing I opted to sew additional squares at each of the corners, on one quilt I did them on the diagonal, on the other I did not.

On the backside I used some extra pieces and some longer pieces that didn't fit on the front. And I used a Speedo for one square - one son used to be a diver and Mom, who has an awesome sense of humor, thought that would be hilarious.

This turned into such a fun project and I'm so glad I was asked to do it.